The Tale of Three Imams

I grew up in the United States where religious programming wasn’t as much religious as it was a setup for asking for donations from television viewers. Sermons crafted to motivate the viewers for donations would start innocently with dreams of building a church for followers to come on Sundays to hear the Word of God. Over time, however, the requests turned into opportunities to sell sermons on tape, books that the minister had written, promises of prayer for healing, wealth and success from an “army of believers,” and to build larger churches. Religion became commercialized and the Word of God became a vessel to generate huge amounts of capital to fund lavish homes, private jets, large campuses for teaching and, for many, extramarital affairs that, when made public, destroyed the ministers and their churches.

For the last 12 years, since the media gained its “independence” in Pakistan, we have seen the proliferation of more and more religious programming on our TV channels. What was once cordoned off to the religious channels has now become mainstream and imams are becoming famous, much like the televangelists of the United States. One anchor has changed channels five times for “better packages” and higher positions within a single media house. Another was chased out of the country because his teachings didn’t fall in line with the mainstream on-air personalities. My fear is that we are headed in the same direction as the United States with our religious programming, but that is not the only issue.

With the sheer number of people that are sitting at home, frustrated with the direction their lives are taking, they are turning more and more to calling in to the on-air personalities for solutions to their problems. Now, I am not saying that there are not good imams on television, but who is really to judge who is good and who is bad? Are we really able to decide which one is giving us true advice from the Holy Quran and Hadiths and who is adding their own flavor and ideas to craft a message that will connect with the caller and other viewers that are watching? Add to this the soothsayers that we find on the morning shows performing exorcisms, healings and pronouncing random fatwas and the country is headed toward a religious schism that will tear us apart.

To understand this better, we need to understand the personalities that are populating our channels. The three types of personalities are the political imam, the ratings imam, and the “I know better” imam.

The political imam leads, or is a member of, a religious party and is constantly telling us that we need to embrace Sharia to solve our national problems, which would not be an issue if their own lives echoed the words that they speak. Most of our political imams are living in lavish homes, driving vehicles that only industrialists can afford and beating the drum of fundamentalist Islam, which pushes us backward. These political imams are also the same that will scream from the mountaintops that the terrorists and extremists are justified in their actions because of the state of the country. We are immoral because we watch lewd programs on television and in cinemas. We are corrupt because we don’t stand up to the people who steal from the country. We are wajib-e-khatal because we did something that they perceive as wrong. It’s amazing that an entire nation of sinners are still alive when we listen to them speak.

Interestingly, these political imams will not resist favored positions in the government, parliament and institutions, nor will they speak out against any politician or bureaucrat that violates the principles of Islam that they thump on their chests. How many videos have we seen of politicians incorrectly reciting surahs and kalimas during cabinet meetings? Which imam has demanded that they be removed from their position or the parliament? Political imams speak only when told to speak, condemn only when told to condemn and praise when told to praise. I recall one of these political imams boldly declaring that “if a dog is killed by America, it attains the status of Shaheed,” while another declared that “no member of the Pakistan Army would be considered a Shaheed if they died fighting the terrorists” – the terrorists being Allah’s warriors instead of a Muslim Army.

I won’t even discuss how they supported, and continue to support, the Lal Masjid brigade, calling them the victims of the Army’s aggression. No, we didn’t watch their antics and violation of the law on television ourselves. No, the media lied to us. The General lied to us. They are the innocent victims.

This is the political imam.

The ratings imam is all about getting people to watch their program over every other on-air imam. We are seeing this more today, during Ramadan, as every channel has spent millions on building lavish sound stages for celebrities to spend hours before Iftar and Sehri telling us that we need to follow the Prophet Muhammad’s example (PBUH), all while running around the stage giving away gifts through contests that have nothing to do with learning the religion that we claim to follow. And there are thousands of sponsors that provide gifts, clothing, Iftar boxes and other things to help these shows run, all in return for a mention of their brand name during the program by the celebrity hosting the program. Let’s forget the hundreds of thousands of IDPs that don’t have a place to live or food to eat because they made the sacrifice for the future of Pakistan. No, let’s spend lewd amounts of money decorating a set and securing gifts for people that go home to four walls and a roof over their head. Apologies but I thought that Ramadan was about sacrifice and learning the conditions others live with each day.

Are you honestly going to tell me that this is what the Prophet (PBUH) would have done if He were alive today? Can you show me in the Holy Quran and the Hadiths where the Prophet or any of his followers behaved in this manner?

We also see the ratings imam outside of Ramadan, hosting their own hour-long program and being a guest on talk shows to discuss how Islamic values have left our society. This is when the ratings imam converts into the “I know better” imam. Surrounding themselves with other like-minded people, they spend the hour trying to convince us, the sheep, that they know better than every imam we have ever listened to from our parents and first Islamiat teachers to the imam that gives the khutba on Friday in our mosque. And, of course, they will take calls from individuals who are struggling with issues ranging from marriage problems to financial ones, and everything in between. It’s what I call sound-byte Islam. “A surah here, a kalima there and Allah will make it all better,” they will tell the caller, intermingled with a story that will support the solution they are offering. Sound-bytes from a religion that is laced with history, tradition and understanding, and we wonder why so many of our Muslim brothers and sisters are confused and easily misguided by politicians and extremists alike.

The “I know better” imams have also emerged in a more destructive form. They have a rudimentary understanding of Arabic, have become a Hafiz and now recite passages without delving into the history, tradition and context of what the conditions were at the time. This has created a group of believers that are more superficial in their beliefs. This superficial belief exhibits itself in the followers growing beards and looking down on those who don’t. They wear burqas and hijabs while judging those who don’t. It exhibits itself in people running around with the pants pulled up to mid-calf even when they are not offering prayers. This form of Islam, which is all about the outward show, is a direct contradiction of the teachings of Islam. It is interesting to note that the Prophet’s followers wore shorter robes during that time because in Arabia, the length of one’s robe was used to denote one’s wealth – a outward display that went against the teachings of Islam, where all men were considered equal, regardless of material possessions.

Islam has always been for the inner soul. They will never tell you why; they will just tell you that the Prophet (PBUH) did it, so should you. There were many other things the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) did and said that they will never bring up.

Now that you know the tale of the three imams, my advice to all Muslims – turn these people off.

The Quran tells us that the Word of Allah has been made easy for all to understand. The Quran is meant to be read and understood by all of us as individuals. The concept of ‘priesthood’ (or Imamhood, as it were) has never existed in Islam and we should not allow it to flourish now. We are all capable of reading, understanding and applying the principles of Islam to our own daily lives. We are expected to do so. It is why reading the complete Quran is a mandatory part of being a Muslim.

We must also read our own history – each surah in the Quran was revealed to address the adversities faced by Muslims at the time of the Prophet and we must know what those situations were. And we must use our own knowledge and logic to apply the tenets of Islam to modern times and to follow the religion to the best of our abilities. Because at the end of the day, the common thread that is the backbone of Islam is moderation. The basic principles are the principles of humanity: truth, fairness, justice and peace.

For us to stop being sheep and start being the lions of Islam, we must know our own religion and be so immersed in these basic principles that others will want to follow Islam because of our ACTIONS, not our words.

About author

Khalid Muhammad

Khalid Muhammad has a keen interest, and regularly writes, on Middle East and Indian sub-continent politics, terrorism, military and defense, as well as espionage fiction. He is an entrepreneur, bestselling novelist, defense analyst and political strategist based in Karachi, Pakistan. You can get more information about Khalid at http://www.agencyrules.com

8 Comments

You said it right – We must know our own religion and be so immersed in these basic principles that others will want to follow Islam because of our ACTIONS, not our words.

This is how Islam spread in the early days. People of other faiths experienced Islam in the upright character and conduct of Muslims in their respective societies and were attracted to Islam in large numbers.

We Muslims have to accept that we are a disaster when it comes to our Da’wah activities, which we have conveniently neglected for the past so many centuries, except for the good souls who took The Message of Prophet Muhammed (PBUH)in his last Sermon at Arafat seriously and did justice to the same.

During the past 1435 years, instead of propagating clean Islamic practices, we have imbibed evil practices of other faiths which are outright Shirk, Bid’ah, Ri’yaa and Haram. Even our weddings and funerals have the stamp of pomp and lavish expenditure. We have also created various sects among ourselves based on race, ethnicity, language and status in society.

While the onslaught of Jewish and the Christian missionaries continued relentlessly, taking their corrupt messages of the Bible to the masses and converting them by the millions, we did nothing to counter them with the True Message of the Qur’an. We continued to rejoice in the comforts of life we inherited due the sacrifices made by our ancestors who did their Da’wah properly and ensured Islam’s rightful place in this world. We did nothing as a community to take Islam to the masses of other faiths. A clear disaster indeed.

To add to this disaster, many of our Imams/politicos had misled us by their wrong understanding of Jihad and instigated killing fields, victims of which were only innocent people and thereby inviting the Wrath of Allah and the world community.

The only Daw’ah organisation which fought this Jewish and Christian tireless tirade of missionary activities was that of Shaikh Ahmed Deedat’s Islamic Propagation Centre Internationalof Durban, South Africa since the 1930s, whose name will always be remembered by every Da’wah institution as the Pioneer of Da’wah activities in modern times.

Atleast in recent times, many Muslims, with special mention to the new reverts to Islam by choice and not chance like most of us born Muslims, have taken this Da’wah Mission on a war footing and have created a conducive atmosphere for Islam, especially in the West.

It is the foremost duty of every one of us Muslims to contribute our bit in taking the Message of Islam to all atleast from now on. Then and only then, we Muslims can be worthy of our Deen.

Wow! Khalid you perfectly explained the religious cocktail sellers, and yes we the Muslims should shut these shops of Imams but when it comes to ratting and fan bank then its simple, they are always financed by capitalists to impure the religious stream. Here is a question why they are always on TV, even people know they working on their own agenda but the large number of viewers and fans and helping them to get high TRP because people are far away from religion and now they like religion under the cover of “Mango eating contest” which is actually giving them “Laptops, Motor Bikes and other households”. And all this is happening because of dead society.

Thank you for your comment, Shahrukh! In response to your question – the reason that they are always on TV is because they drive ratings and bring in heavy commercial endorsements. You rightly mention the “mango eating contest” that was aired on a respected media channel, but was a disgusting display of what people will do for a “gift.” When we are willing to sacrifice our respect to win things, what will that do the impression of society, morality and ethics both domestically and internationally?

I didn’t say that all people do it, as a matter of fact, I stayed away from using the word all because I know that it is a specific group of people that do it. The entire statement is as follows:

“This has created a group of believers that are more superficial in their beliefs. This superficial belief exhibits itself in the followers growing beards and looking down on those who don’t. They wear burqas and hijabs while judging those who don’t. It exhibits itself in people running around with the pants pulled up to mid-calf even when they are not offering prayers. This form of Islam, which is all about the outward show, is a direct contradiction of the teachings of Islam.”

The statement is about those who hold this specific belief that the expression of Islam is through outward gestures, rather than inward reflection.

I am not sure what is your opinion about Nouman Ali Khan (I personally think he is brilliant mashAllah) but he once quoted a scholar in one of his lectures. Basically, that scholar gave an example of a tree, he said when the tree gets the fruit, its branches bend down. Similarly, when true Islam enters a heart, it humbles the heart. I loved this example so shared it here.

Hello Pedrito – First, thank you for your request. While I would love to assist you with a Filipino version of this story, I am not someone who speaks, reads or understands the language. I don’t feel that I would be able to do it justice. I am sure, however, that Google Translate or any of the other free online translation websites might be able to help you out.

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